Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1887-09-01
LIFE IN THE DEEP SEA.
Curious Revelations Of Dredge
and Microscope.

Like the North Pole the ocean bot
tom is completely sealed to the human
eye; but we can at least form an idea
of what there is far down in the depths
of the sea. says contributor to the
Hartford Courant. A year or two ago
it was my fortune to be connected with
a Government expedition having for
its object the exploration of ocean bot
tom, and it will be my aim in this ar
ticle to convey an idea of what we
learned. BY means of a large rectan-
gular iron frame with long bag net
behind We dragged the bed of the
sea in depths of two or three
miles beneath the surface and brought
up wonderful animals and rare
treasures. Some twenty years or more
ago few were so wild as to believe
that any kind of living matter could
exist in the depths of the sea, and to
most people the finding of such life far
beneath the surface was as much
wonder rs the finding of sea-serpent
would be to-day. 1t seems remark
able that animals can live IN the deep
sea where the pressure is many tons to
the square inch, but they are SO loose
ly put together that the pressure ex-
tends into all parts of the body and no
ill effects are felt. We live on the sur
face of the earth with pressure of
fifteen pounds to the square inch, but
unless it was shown by experiments
no one would know it. So with the
animals on the ocean bottom, each
bearing a pressure as great as that of
AN ordinary railroad engine, none of
them are aware of the load they carry.
but they move rs freely through the
water as do their brethren at the sur
face.
We were on the Fish Commission
steamer Albatross, fine vessel, fitted
up in the most modern fashion, and
made especially for deep sea dredging.
We made frequent trips far out towards
the Bermudas, where the ocean waters
extend downward to depth of fully
eighteen thousand feet, and then we
cast our dredge and scraped along in
a blind manner after whatever we
could find. 1t was the deepest water
that had ever been explored, and our
results were most wonderful. The
bed of the sea was found to be mass
of dark blue. very sticky mud. which.
when examined by the microscope.
20 hn in
large measure of the minute shells of
a very lovely organized animal with no
common name but called scientifically
Foraminifera. This mud existed every
where, and. curiously enough, it is
found to be almost exactly the same as
the chalk cliffs of England. differing
only in that it is still Ifssddy. If a bit of
chalk is examined with microscope it
will be found to be composed of
mul:itudes of beautiful shells, and
there Is no doubt that this ocean mud
would form into chalk if it could be
exposed to the air. Each fine muddy
particle is the cast-off remnant of an
animal that lived and died in the
great depths of the sea- Strange to
say these creatures which build such
beautiful shells are the very lowest
form of animal life.
All the animals tn at we see in every
day life are built of millions of tiny
cells, but these Foraminfera have but
one. They have no stomach, yet they
can eat; without nerves they feel. and
without feet they move. When they
wish to crawl along the elastic wall OF
the cell is sent out into sort of thread
and the liquid substance within runs
into the thread SO that they move by
making temporary foot and then
pouring themselves into il. Their
mode of eating is also peculiar. In
the course of their motion they strike
against something which is good to
eat (and they can tell whether it is or
no without tasting). then two threads
are shot out on either side of the edi-
BILE object and the food particle is COM
pletely surrounded. The ends of
the threads break open and are. so to
speak, welded together. then the walls
surrounding the food particle disap-
pear. and as if by magic We find the
food within the body. Their power of
forming a temporary mouth and de-
stroying it the moment it is formed is
very remarkable, and have watched it
again and again by the aid Of my mil
croscope. These lowly creatures often
eaild most beautiful and complicated